Leal is able to impersonate one of the estimated 600,000 tourists in the country for the World Cup because he speaks fluent English, having spent three years in the UK. But even those with the faintest grasp of English have been known to give it a go as a fake American or Brit.

And some actually succeed –- at least during the initial encounter.

As @alemaouc bragged in the tweet below: "Chatting up women by pretending to be gringo: I've done it lots when I went to Fortaleza. Don't know if it's low self-esteem, but I know it's really fun! Haha!"

In São Paulo, bars are doing a roaring trade during the mega-event. Football fans — foreign, faux-foreign and proudly native — are everywhere, obligatory beer in hand. Among the revelers on a recent night was student Janaína Ribeiro, 21, who admitted she has a passion for foreign men. She added that Brazilians faking it are usually easy to spot.

“'Hello... What's your name? My Portuguese is not very good...' is what they say. Normally you can tell in a split second. Sometimes they say they're Greek or Italian to try to explain away the cracks in their linguistic skills,” Ribeiro said.

“When you get talking with a real foreigner, it's not about having sex with a gringo, as some people say; we're just curious about the unknown," she said. "A lot of Brazilians haven't traveled. And now with the World Cup, there is plenty of opportunity to meet people from all over the world."

It's a topic that's been hotly debated on social media in Brazil over the past few days. Not least because the country's top vlogger and Internet celebrity, 26-year-old Felipe Neto, weighed in on the topic.

“It's not just one or two cases here in Rio de Janeiro. We're seeing hundreds and hundreds of people talking about how they're using this tactic and swearing that Brazilian women are like putty in their hands!” Neto said in one of his near-daily vlogs.

The young Carioca was Brazil's first YouTube vlogger to break through the million subscriber mark. He now has nearly 3 million subscribers and almost as many followers on Twitter (@felipeneto) and is an influential voice for young people in South America's largest country. He says Brazilians are often judgmental of women who prefer foreign suitors.

“Women should be free to do what they want to do,” he tells Mashable. “I find that any kind of interaction between different nations –- a kind of cultural exchange –- is beneficial for everyone concerned.”

“In fact, I think it's one of the most positive outcomes of this World Cup in Brazil. People are spending hours just chatting with different groups of tourists and learning more about their countries,” Neto says.

However, for most the tactic appears to be more of an icebreaker than a serious attempt to deceive, and plenty of Brazilians sharing their experiences online admit the act doesn't work in the long run.

Businessman Ed Carlos Leas, however, says he doesn't regret his pretense of having just flown in from London.

“One night I was out with my friends and I met a local woman called Liliane, and I introduced myself in English to impress her, and we really hit it off.”

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